Former FCC chairman: Things are 'going the way I feared'

After stepping down from his role as the country's top media industry watchdog, Tom Wheeler needed a drink. A margarita, to be precise.

"My wife and I went and spent a couple weeks in Cabo -- what I describe as intensive margarita therapy," says Wheeler, who ended his term as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission last month.

Under Wheeler, the government agency approved net neutrality rules to keep the Internet open and fair. The rules prevent providers like Comcast(CCV) from deliberately speeding up or slowing down traffic from specific websites and apps.

Shortly before stepping down, Wheeler used his final public speech as chairman to warn the next administration not to go backward on regulations. A few days later, President Trump picked Ajit Pai to succeed Wheeler. Pai is a former lawyer for Verizon(VZ) and an outspoken critic of the net neutrality rules.

A month into the new FCC administration, Wheeler tells CNNTech, "It's going the way I feared."

"Conservatives used to be against letting big companies determine who gets on the broadcast airwaves, but now they are for allowing big companies to determine who gets on the Internet [and] on what terms," Wheeler told CNNTech by phone Friday.

"It seems to me the lobbyists are winning out over core principles here," he added.

Earlier this month, the FCC blocked nine companies from providing low-income Internet access. And this week, the agency is moving to stop some of Wheeler's broadband privacy rules from taking effect.

For now, Wheeler is trying to figure out the best way to engage with these issues as a private citizen, while mindful that "there is an appropriate way in which a former chairman should be acting."

One approach, he says, is working at the "cutting edge." He recently joined the board of Actility, an Internet of Things company, to be part of what he describes as "Web 3.0." He hopes to join more boards and "do some teaching and writing."

The other part, of course, would be speaking out publicly against the FCC's actions on issues like net neutrality.

"I don't expect to go enroll in a monastery," he says, before adding: "The right way to do this is a matter that requires ... tact, if you will."

One thing Wheeler can't quite bring himself to do is disconnect.

"I wish I could be disciplined enough to keep a distance," he says. "You still feel these things in your gut and you still believe them strongly, so you can't help but watch what's going on with some concern."